When it comes time to transfer your assets to your inheritors, you want to make sure that the process doesn’t become more stressful and emotional than it naturally is. With a Sterling Heights estate plan, you can make sure that your wishes are followed exactly as you instruct them to be. Axis Estate Planning will help you draw up your Sterling Heights estate plan so that everything goes according to plan. Here is the process for most Sterling Heights estate plans:
- Identifying your estate– First, we record all of what you can include in your estates, such as financial accounts, personal property, life insurance policies, and real estate.
- Transfer planning– After your death, there will need to be some plan in place for transferring your property. We will work with you to decide how you want your things to be transferred and to whom you want them to be transferred.
At most estate planning companies, you can only draw up a plan for your financial assets. But at Axis Estate Planning, we recognize that people are more than just their wealth. That’s why we include the chance to preserve your legacy and your ancestors’ legacy. What we do is allow you to include any pieces of family history, heirlooms, morals, and beliefs you want to be passed on to family members or friends. While the financial aspect is important, your family members will want to remember you for more than just your possessions.
What is included in a Sterling Heights estate plan?
Sterling Heights estate plans may include a wide range of documents. At a basic level, most estate plans include at least a Will, a Medical Power of Attorney, a Revocable Living Trust (if needed), and a Durable (financial) Power of Attorney. Here’s what each of those mean for your Sterling Heights estate plan:
- Will– The document where you name guardians for any minor children and direct your assets to their inheritors. A Will alone does not avoid probate. In fact, if there is only a Will then probate will be necessary.
- Probate is the lengthy, often expensive process of validating a Will in court following a death.
- Revocable Living Trust– This acts as your personal “treasure chest,” holding your assets until you become incapacitated or pass away, at which point the instructions you provided in the Sterling Heights Revocable Living Trust will explain how to transfer your assets.
- There are many advantages to having this. This will allow your family members to avoid probate, it offers flexibility, as well as control and management of your assets, and it reduces the chance of challenges to your estate, among many other benefits.
Sterling Heights estate planning is helpful while living, too
While the main purpose of an estate plan is to sort out your affairs after death, there is an important purpose it can serve while you’re living. If it happens that you can no longer make financial or medical decisions, you’ll need someone to step in and make those decisions for your wellbeing. Preferably, it should be someone you name yourself, and that’s what Sterling Heights estate planning lets you do. To take care of paying bills, you name your Financial Power of Attorney. To take care of medical decisions, you name your Medical Power of Attorney. Estate planning also allows you to write up your Living Will (patient advocate). To make sure that everything is taken care of by people you trust to care for your best interests, it’s important to have a carefully thought out Sterling Heights estate plan. Let the experts at Axis Estate Planning help you to lay out exactly how you want the process to go. We’ll make sure that nothing is missed, and that everything is recorded to your exact wishes. Plan for the future and for your family with Axis Estate Planning.
We also offer seminars on Elder Law and Estate Planning. Check our events page for upcoming seminars that are usually held in the Top of Troy Building.
